Yes it is January 7, 2011 and according to my ratings, they are the #4 team in the state, and the best team in class A. Does this sound correct? To many I'm guessing no. Based on HSHockeyWatcher's post today, the pollsters have them averaged out around the #11 spot in class A alone. So could they be overvalued in my rankings? Let's take a look at their schedule:
| Date | Game | Opp Rank | |||
| November | 27 | 2010 | Blake 3, Delano 2 | 54 | |
| November | 26 | 2010 | Delano 7, Owatonna 2 | 132 | |
| December | 27 | 2010 | Proctor 4, Delano 3 | 16 | |
| December | 21 | 2010 | Delano 7, Chanhassen 0 | 126 | |
| December | 18 | 2010 | Delano 8, New Ulm 2 | 25 | |
| December | 16 | 2010 | Delano 7, Robb. Cooper 4 | 52 | |
| December | 9 | 2010 | Delano 9, St Michael-Albertville 2 | 42 | |
| December | 7 | 2010 | Delano 7, Princeton 3 | 85 | |
| January | 4 | 2011 | Delano 8, Waconia 3 | 105 |
In their two losses, they lost by only a goal, which is the best way to lose, (or one of the worst, if you want to consider emotional consequences). But if we take a closer look, we see that in their other 7 games, they've scored no less than 7 goals per game. This can be expected against teams like Owatonna, Chanhassan, Waconia, and maybe even Princeton. But then we have teams like New Ulm who give up only 2.4 goals per game (2.31 AdjGA per game) and St Michael-Albertville (3.22 GA per game, 3.03 AdjGA per game) we see that Delano always finds a way to score, and score a lot.
I'm excited to see how Delano plays tonight on the road against #27 St. Cloud Cathedral for two reasons:
1) It'll be a great test for them to possibly show that they are an elite class A team
2) If they lose big and move down in my ratings, then maybe more people might find my newly launched ratings credible.
